Post-religion, I was a kid in a candy store, not sure what to believe and open to everything. Study with the UU's? Worship with the evangelicals? Meditate with the Buddhists? I did it all.

Having spent most of my life inside of a high-demand religion (Mormonism) and later the evangelical side of Christianity, I was open to everything and all. I'm sharing this post to highlight what helped me most.

Enter Bob Monroe's Gateway program.

In the 1970s, a radio executive named Robert Monroe started...

We’ve all encountered difficult people, but how do you know when someone crosses the line from simply “difficult” to genuinely dangerous? I was so naive in my youth. I could not have imagined how dark some people are, which, as you might guess, exposed me to people who used, abused, and played me. Ignorance is not bliss.

In a recent interview with Dr. Kerry McAvoy, former FBI special agent and criminal profiler Joe Navarro shed light on this exact question. After years of studying criminals,...

I wrote Coach Them Out: How to Influence Someone Out of Toxic Beliefs because arguing rarely accomplishes what we hope it will.

When people feel attacked, they defend themselves. When we corner them with facts, they search for counterarguments. When we humiliate them, they may cling even more tightly to the group that tells them they are righteous, chosen and under attack.

The better approach is usually to lower defensiveness, raise curiosity and let reality do more of the persuading. Ask open...